Where would we be without Freud?
Slight grammatical error in this hoodie raised a few smiles in this Irish household.
My youngest had a cutting remark as Gaeilge about the hidden truth of it all.
When this parish was in the United Kingdom the London polity was unquestionably Number One in the world.
Britain owned the 19th Century and during that time a million people on this island starved to death.
A historical event that Prime Minister Blair apologised for, but The People found suitable for a ‘funny’ song.
At precisely the same historical moment as An Gorta Mór in the South China Sea the British ran a Narco State out of Hong Kong.
Long before the Medellín Cartel was thought of the British were drug dealers on an industrial scale.
If this is news to you Google is your friend.
‘Opium Wars’ is what you’re looking for.
Throughout the 20th century Britain slid down the global rankings in terms of influence, power and prestige.
When Britain WAS Number One in the world it was built on having the biggest navy on the high seas.
Britannia really did rule the waves.
Their military maritime punch has receded with every decade since the end of the Great War.
Now they’re in the middle of the great aircraft carrier omnishambles.
They have built two ocean going white elephants and they cannot afford to staff or to buy enough aircraft to fly from them.
The fact that the only plane that can be used is an entire clusterfuck that is eating the Pentagon is beside the point.
As the 20th century drew to a close the Chinese took back Hong Kong without firing a shot. They didn’t need to and Her Majesty’s Forces could not have stopped them if they had been ordered to.
‘British Independent Nuclear Deterrent’ I hear you say?
Well it isn’t British it isn’t Independent and it does not deter anyone.
The missile system is built and controlled by Uncle Sam, but don’t tell Sammy.
As for deterrence I don’t think the Taliban know or care that the UK has a radioactive fireworks display in their submarines.
They know what they need to know.
And that was that they had the beating of the British on their own turf.
Overall the withdrawal from Empire after 1945 was grubby and shameful.
The British state still has to give justice to those Kenyans who were incarcerated in their death camps there.
In some places, like Aden, it was an outright military defeat for British Arms.
In Iraq Britain was humbled by a Shia militia in 2007.
While ‘Tommy’ was confined the Basra airfield the Mahdi Army murdered scores of women in the city for being…ahem… insufficiently Islamic.
That country itself was a British confection after the Great War and to impose their will they used Weapons of Mass Destruction on innocent civilians.
Churchill stated that “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes … [to] spread a lively terror …”
Lest we forget.
Operation Herrick has just ended.
It was almost a military humiliation on a par with the eviction from Basra.
Only the intervention of the US Marine Corps and the 82nd Airborne prevented (another) British defeat in this calamitous ‘War on terror’.
Just as with the other Anglo-Afghan wars the locals won.
Britain, like all countries, requires a defence force, not an invasion capability.
I hope that in future the most dangerous things that these British lads have to do are to abseil of that rickety roof in Ibrox to keep the Sports Direct customers happy at least one day a year.
In Dear Old Blighty very few people with any rational facility believe that Britain is Number One at anything anymore.
In fact in one part of Britain there are lots of people who don’t want to be included in this ‘British’ stuff any longer.
In Scotland the people of her greatest city voted last month to leave the UK and the forces of Unionism, despite having won the referendum by ten points, are now in a rear-guard action to preserve their expenses.
This excellent piece by Mike Small of Bella Caledonia has one error.
“The 55% held no public celebrations in the aftermath of their win…”
Actually the No victory WAS celebrated by The People.
Moreover it is “…scraps of a British identity…” that they now pitifully cling to.
Sadly as the reality bites between Westminster imposed austerity at home and Britain’s reduced status in the world then their limited and toxic worldview will increasingly become an incubator for fascism.
When it comes to historical illiteracy and atavistic xenophobia then The People in their hoodies are still Number One.
